Desolation Angels

Artist: Bad Company
Label: Atlantic / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio Cassette

UPC: 075679245144
EAN: 0075679245144
ASIN: B000002JT6

Release Date: 1994-09-20

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Tracks:

Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy
Crazy Circles
Gone, Gone, Gone
Evil Wind
Early in the Morning
Lonely for Your Love
Oh, Atlanta
Take the Time
Rhythm Machine
She Brings Me Love

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Burnin' Sky
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Bad Company

Customer Reviews:

Bad Company Rocks.......2005-07-28

This is one of the best albums with the original line up. Exceptionally tight. 1979 was a good year for good rock 'n' roll and a good year for Bad Company

The last seventies release from Bad Company..........2005-06-23

Desolation Angels (1979.) Bad Company's fifth album.

Bad Company rose to fame in the mid-late seventies, being one of very few supergroups in rock and roll history that managed to survive for a rather long time. With former members of Mott The Hoople, King Crimson, and Free united, the group beautifully demonstrated that they were all musical geniuses, many times over. Unfortunately, the band's later releases lacked the success of the early ones, which scored the band a plethora of hit singles. Their fifth album, Desolation Angels, was the last one the group released, and the second-to-last one the band would release before disbanding. Read on for my review of the 1979 album, and find out just how it measures up.

This is one of the best albums the classic Bad Company line-up released, so it's a shame it never got the same kind of fame their earlier seventies releases got. The band tried implementing strings and synthesizers in a few places on this album, but not so much to the point that it totally defiled the music. The end result is a five-star masterpiece, and arguably the finest rock and roll album of 1979. Kicking things off is my all-time favorite Bad Company song, Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy. This song has everything necessary for a song to be a classic rock hit, and it's one song that really DESERVED to be a hit. Unfortunately for the band, it was the only big hit to come from the album. On the good side though, its sheer quality spoke for the rest of the album. Continuing on, we get to the minor hit, Crazy Circles. This is a mostly acoustic and folksy tune which beautifully illustrates the band's musical diversity. It also helps to prove that Paul Rodgers is one of the greatest rock and roll vocalists of all time. My favorite song on the album (besides Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy of course) is Gone, Gone Gone. The song sounds IDENTICAL to classic seventies-era Robin Trower, and that's a very good thing. I have always thought Paul Rodgers had a voice similar to Robin Trower's vocalist James Dewar, and when you listen to this song and then listen to any Robin Trower hit from this era, you'll see exactly what I mean. Every time I listen to the album, this is one I've gotta hear at least once. And then we get to Evil Wind. This is a mid-paced, classic hard blues rocker. Mick Ralphs does his guitar playing here excellently - you've gotta love those distorted riffs! The slow and melodic rocker Early In The Morning comes next. It's one of my favorite songs on the album, combining the band's classic rock sound with a slower, more melodic one than you're probably used to. Classic rock ballads never sounded better. The album's next track, Lonely For Your Love, is by far the most bluesy-sounding thing the release has to offer. Once again, the band's musical diversity is illustrated beautifully. It's immediately followed by another bluesy number, the harmonica-heavy Oh, Atlanta. Not surprisingly, it's another excellent rocker, even if it is different from what you're used to hearing from the band. Take The Time is another one of the acoustic, folksy numbers on the album - it's amazing just how good the band was at creating ballads. This particular one uses a musical styling very similar to the one previously used by Loggins And Messina. We get right back into the rocker tunes with Rhythm Machine, a straight-up rock number that will grab your attention and take a tight hold of it. Closing out the album is She Brings Me Love, another slower-paced tune, which shows off the band's newfound obsession with synthesizers. Combining a slow, melodic rock tune with a backing synthesizer pattern, the band makes one hell of a song. They couldn't have closed things out on a higher note. And that's it for Desolation Angels. It's a shame this album is so underrated, because it really is one of the group's finest accomplishments.

Sadly, with the exception of hits compilations and the self-titled debut, Bad Company's albums are no longer readily available in stores. This is a shame, because as this album demonstrates, there is more to Bad Company than just the hit singles. Hopefully the albums will get reissued, and maybe have some expanded liner notes and bonus tracks added, but until then, you're going to have to hunt hard if you want the albums.

Desolation Angels was Bad Company's final release of the seventies, and they couldn't have ended the decade on a higher note. It's just a shame that by this time period, most people had forgotten about the band, and moved on to listen to the new up-and-coming musical sensations of the day. If you're a fan of Bad Company, this is a highly recommended album that must be added to your collection.

PROBABLY THE LAST BEST ALBUM BY BAD COMPANY.......2005-01-08

Here is where MICK RAPLHS and PAUL RODGERS' new guitar sounds definitely shine on this album, but the synthesizer is probably, if not definitely, unnecessary. A mellotron would have sounded a whole lot better. Meanwhile, PAUL'S ROCK 'N' ROLL FANTASY that says is all is definitely an outstanding opener for the album. PAUL's flangering (an excellent sound effect) guitar intro really gets his ROCK 'N' ROLL FANTASY off the ground, along with SIMON KIRKE'S drum playing, BOZ BURRELL'S bass guitar riffs, the organ, and the harmony vocals by the band. The next song CRAZY CIRCLES that features no electric guitars, except for the bass guitar, is an excellent acoustic ballad. BOZ'S GONE, GONE, GONE that features excellent rhythm and slide guitar and excellent harmony vocals is a great guitar rock song. EVIL WIND, on the other hand, is a excellent rock tune with the guitar riffs, and the tone of MICK'S lead guitar solo really shines on EARLY IN THE MORNING. LONELY FOR YOUR LOVE, despite PAUL'S voice on this song, is a good rhythm and blues song by MICK, but I like his next two songs better. I love how PAUL plays the harmonica and the piano on OH ATLANTA where MICK plays excellent rhythm guitar on a FENDER STRAT and lead guitar on a GIBSON LES PAUL STANDARD through a MARSHALL amplifier. MICK'S acoustical ballad TAKE THE TIME with his slide guitar and the band's harmony vocals is excellent too. The next two songs with MICK and PAUL on guitar are excellent too. MICK plays excellent slide guitar on RHYTHM MACHINE, but I am now wondering if PAUL plays the lead guitar solo on this song too. I think SHE BRINGS ME LOVE would have sound a whole lot better if the rest of the band itself would have sung the harmony vocals instead of the female singers, but it strongly reminds me of their earlier song DON'T LET MY DOWN from their 1974 debut album.

Uptight Critics Weren't Alone in Longing for New Directions.......2004-06-16

"Desolation Angels" will probably never be mentioned in the list of rock albums in history that bridged the gap between strong hard rock and Southern flavors, and that's a real shame since this record is one of Bad Company's finest releases.
It's not just because the set was propelled by the greatest, most addictive hit the group ever had, 'Rock and Roll Fantasy,' but because it showcases a hard rocking band in a straight, competent state of mind, obviously dying to move their trademark sound into different territories. Which explains the trips into the old West and rural country hills, imagery that appears on great tracks like 'Evil Wind' and, more evidently, 'Oh Atlanta.' Acoustic guitars have an important role, like in the melodic 'Crazy Circles,' but electricity is never forgotten, such as the worthwhile 'Gone Gone Gone.'
Intriguingly titled, "Desolation Angels" is proof that the critics of the 70s were not the only ones who longed for a change in the FM hard rock format, and Bad Company would try their best to stay on this road on their next album, the unjustly ignored "Rough Diamonds" a long three years later.

**3/4. Bland.......2004-02-08

After their first two albums, "Bad Co." and "Straight Shooter", Paul Rodgers and Bad Company never really hit their stride again. Sure, there were good songs on most of their albums, sometimes even great ones, but there were a lot of mediocrity as well, and the same thing goes for "Desolation Angels".

The best songs here are "Rock n' Roll Fantasy", "Gone, Gone, Gone" and the bluesy, harp-driven "Oh, Atlanta", but unfortunately they're also the only really remarkable songs here. The rest just sort of blends together, offering no great highlights, no memorable lyrics, hooks, riffs or anything.

It's not that this music is bad, it's just uninspired, and not nearly as distinctive as Bad Company's first two albums, or the output of Paul Rodgers' first band, Free.
All in all, "Desolation Angels" remains a mediocre record.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

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Slippery When Wet ~ Bon Jovi

Your Bloated Corpse Has ~ Puerto Muerto

Classic Velvet Underground: The Universal Masters Collection ~ Velvet Underground

The Meaning

Observer Magazine Single ~ Strokes

Charlie Chaplin ~ Various Artists

Fantasia Revolution Tour ~ DJ Sloop